Chapter 76: Intention to improve Takumi’s foodOn the morning the day after arriving to Quilbas, I went out to the town with the girls.
「Where would you like to look around?」
「Let’s go see the market first.」
We headed to the Quilbas marketplace and went around looking at the foodstuff.
「Takumi-samaaa! They have grilled skewers!」
「Then let’s buy one for everybody.」
Finding Milk Buffalo meat skewers, Maria asked for some. I was also interested, so I decided to buy for everyone, even a portion for Kaede who is currently inn-sitting.
「Nom, Ta, kumi-sama, that, nom, also, nom, looks good.」
「Maria, don’t talk while you’re eating, if there’s something you’ll want then we’ll buy it.」
While stuffing her cheeks full, Maria asked for the next delicious-looking food.
「Even so, there really are a lot.」
「Yes, there are more varieties of sausage here than in Volton.」
「There were no sausages in the beastman villages.」
「Then why don’t we buy all kinds of sausages to take home?」
「Yes!」
Laeva’s village was apparently a poor, scanty village, and they had no surplus to make preserved food with. Condiments were nearly nonexistent, and they’ve only recently learned of flavors aside from salt.
「Still, because I started sending the wages I’ve received from Takumi-sama there, I’ve received a letter saying that they’re no longer having difficulty over food.」
「I see, what a relief. Wouldn’t they be happy if we send household items next time?」
「You’re right. When I’ve become able to make magic devices, I’ll send them useful magic devices.」
「Then let’s send a Purifier DM and hand pump together with your next remittance.」
「Eh, is that alright?」
「You have a little brother, don’t you? I think it would definitely be useful for them.」
「Thank you very much.」
Distracting myself from my embarrassment, I went binge shopping for milk. If it’s stored in the Item Box, its freshness is maintained, so there’s no problem with buying as much as I could buy. Knowing that it could be used in cooking, the girls did not object.
Having the milk store refer us to another shop that deals with cheese, we headed there next.
「Bloomy rind, fresh, blue mould, semi hard and hard types of cheeses, huh. It looks like there’s no washed rind type of cheese.」
There are various types of cheeses displayed in the cheese shop. We sampled each of them and respectively bought the cheeses that were to our liking..
Sophia and Maria bought large quantities of the bloomy rind type and the soft fresh type that had no peculiar odors. Laeva was pleased with the semi hard types and kept bringing some to me. I eat all types so I bought a bit of the blue mold and hard types as well.
「Really~ Dear customer is buying splendidly~. We are very grateful though, yes.」
「It’s because it is Quilbas’ specialties, after all. Now, there’s something I’d like to ask, but do you know a shop that sells seasonings and alcohol?」
「For seasonings, if you go all the way to the right, there is a shop near the end. For alcohol, it is three stores next to the aforementioned shop.」
「Thank you.」
Following the cheese shop’s owner’s suggestion, we then bought a variety of items from the liquor store and seasoning shop. Sophia seemed to want to drink wine, so we bought a barrel of wine and ale.
「Sorry, Sophia. You held back on drinking alcohol, didn’t you?」
「It is fine. I understand that Takumi-sama and Maria have just barely reached adulthood, so I thought you didn’t know the taste of alcohol.」
I feel bad for Sophia. I wasn’t much of a drinker even in Japan, and since coming to this world, even though I’m considered an adult, I still intuitively come out as a 15 year old child.
「From here on, let’s try out different kinds of alcohol and find ones we like.」
「Yes.」
「Ah, please let Maria drink as well.」
「Since I didn’t drink when I was in my village too, I’d like to try drinking.」
「Okay then, how about everyone drinks a bit during dinner tonight?」
「「「Yes.」」」
After that, we found and bought bacon and ham, then returned to the inn once we were satisfied with the massive amount of groceries we bought.
***
Footnotes:
Marginal Village – 限界集落 (Genkai Shuuraku), literally limited village. It’s an ongoing problem for Japan, although not particularly the case for the story because, here, it just means a lowly populated village in a secluded area (I think). More information here.It’s derived from the japanese word for corn, “Tomorokoshi” then altered to “Rokoshin”. I want to call it Korne to keep it similar instead of Locoycn. lolFor information on cheeses, please just google them. Way too many links lol